Page 83 of Out of Control

“Cruz probably knew nothing about what was said, but he acted like it—or in my eyes he did—and for me . . . for me, it just fueled my animosity toward him over the years. I did things I wasn’t proud of. Things I was proud of. Things I’m sure I did that I’ve no doubt forgotten.”

Sofia moves to the window of the hotel and looks beyond. She could say a million things to me right now. She could ask me if I think the same of her. She could tell me I’m an asshole because her brother didn’t deserve any of my vitriol. She could turn and tell me I’m a petty fucker and ask me why she should stay with me.

But she doesn’t do any of them. Instead, she stares out the window at the city beyond, a city we can’t be seen in public in because of that same history that’s haunted me for most of my life—that I’m not good enough—and asks the unexpected.

“What happened? With the bullies? With you in school? With your family?”

I stare at her delicate shoulders, the curve of her hips, and the regal way she holds her head, and I say things only Blair and my parents know. “Nothing happened to them. My parents had to pay legal fees for them and us. Mandatory counseling for me. Pain and suffering damages. They had to pay back the tuition that was bestowed to me even though I never used it all.”

“Rossi.” She turns to look at me. Compassion owns everything about her and for the first time in my life, I don’t see it as pity. I see it as someone truly caring about me.

“Yeah. It was bad. I went to live with my nonna for a while until the drama died down.”

“The Ollie Nonna?”

“Yeah.”

“The upside is that I was a juvenile, so my record was kept private. My father . . . he shouldered the burden of it all. Worked nonstop to pay as much as he could while pushing me in another direction. Toward the only other thing I’d shown interest and promise in.”

She moves to me, her smile soft and her eyes kind. “It’s not your fault. You know that, don’t you?”

I nod, but the shame sits like a lump in my throat. From loving something so much it ruined my family. For my actions. For so many fucking things. “It changed my family forever though.”

But I’ve made it now. I’ve changed everything and proven everyone wrong . . . and I still don’t have anyone in the stands from my family rooting me on.

So if it’s not my actions . . .

Is it me? I am, after all, the common denominator.

“It’s not you. It’s not your fault,” Sofia says as if she can read my mind. She runs her hand down my cheek and pulls me into her. “I’m sure he’s proud of you in his own way. Everyone shows things differently. Everyone has battles you’re unaware of. Just like you had this battle that I didn’t know about.”

She leans up on her toes and presses her lips to mine. But it’s the way she pulls me into her, the way we shift to the couch so that she’s sitting, and my head is in her lap, that allows me to breathe a little easier.

She didn’t leave.

I smile and snuggle in more to her hand that’s running through my hair. Funny how we both had that fear. She knew hers was there. I didn’t.

“Ollie?”

“Hmm?”

“What was it you loved so much that made them pick on you?”

I take a deep breath and feel the shame from all those years ago envelop me. The same shame that led to so much hardship for my family. That has placed a wedge between my dad and me.

“Art,” I say softly.

Her fingers tighten ever so slightly. Her breath is a slow exhale.

And for once . . . I truly think we’re on even footing.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

Sofia

“Maddix. Hi.” I glance over her shoulder expecting to see my father or my brother or someone with the last name Navarro tagging along but there isn’t one.

“Hey. Mind if I join you?” She points to one of the chairs in the hotel’s cocktail lounge.